Family Rescues Kidnapped Woman and Kills Estranged Boyfriend Who Allegedly Attempted to Stab Her to Death
The heroic family of a Louisiana woman who was kidnapped by the estranged father of her 2-year-old son and held hostage for two days, rescued the woman on Friday, when they were allegedly forced to kill her ex-lover as he attempted to stab her to death.
"She's shook up, she's sliced up, but she's alright," Ryan Arceneaux, a brother of the rescued woman, Bethany Arceneaux, 29, told The Advertiser. He and another brother, Kaylyn Alfred, were among several family members who banded together and rescued her from an abandoned house where she was being held hostage. "We found her. We went and got her in that house. We kicked doors down. It was like a movie unfolding."
According to police, Bethany Arceneaux was kidnapped last Wednesday by her son's father, Scott Thomas, and she couldn't be found for two days.
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So when her family members got a tip that it was possible Bethany was being held at an abandoned house near Anderson and Fieldspan roads in the neighborhood about six of them showed up at the house.
They kicked down the door and were relieved when they found Bethany, bloodied from being repeatedly stabbed, but alive with Thomas. A confrontation erupted between Thomas and Bethany's family during which she was further injured and shots were fired. Thomas died from injuries he received during the fight, according to Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Capt. Kip Judice.
"The man began harming her. He (Arceneaux's family member) did what he needed to do to stop that aggressive behavior from Mr. Thomas," said Judice. "We have to put all the information together before we can comment further on the extent of that confrontation."
"If we would have waited, she would have been dead," said Ryan Arceneaux. Alfred said when they entered the house all they heard was: "Just screaming …'help, help,'" he said. "That's about it." And the family responded to that call.
After the rescue, they took her to Lafayette General Medical Center where she was treated and released on Sunday, according to The Advertiser.
The report highlighted Thomas' history of violence against his estranged lover, citing a June 15 complaint to police by Bethany that he had locked her in a house and threatened to kill her and her son.
"He grabbed our son from me and shoved him into the car," Arceneaux noted in the complaint. "Since then, Scott has been riding around my mom's house and my work looking for me. I am afraid for me and my son's life."
Court records also indicate that a protective order against Thomas was issued on June 17, but less than two months later he had violated the order, and was charged with aggravated assault and aggravated flight from an officer.
When Thomas kidnapped Bethany last Wednesday from a parking lot while she was with her son, it was a complete stranger, Derrimetria Robinson, who was left to care for the 2-year-old after Thomas took her.
"She (Arceneaux) went to the passenger side to get her baby out and when she was doing that a white Buick pulled up behind her. She started running and he (the driver of the car) ran behind her and he attacked her, you know, while she was holding her baby," Robinson said.
"She was hollering and screaming for help," Robinson added. "When I seen she had a baby and I knew they were in trouble, it was like I knew I had to save that little baby."
Robinson cared for the boy until family members came to pick him up and said she was glad Bethany was rescued.
"I'm just glad I was able to help and that God chose me to do such a wonderful mission ... if I had to do it again, I would do it again," she said.
